


Have my lungs, but you can't take my sight

by MayQueen517



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Comfort, Friendship, Gen, music is love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-29
Updated: 2012-09-29
Packaged: 2017-11-15 06:21:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/524082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayQueen517/pseuds/MayQueen517
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"It's a start," she murmurs as he laughs roughly. </p>
<p>It is, he thinks, a fine start.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Have my lungs, but you can't take my sight

**Author's Note:**

> Another prompt! I guess I'm unbottling or something. Prompt of Any Jack's Mannequin song in relation to Clint and/or Natasha. 
> 
> I ended up choosing Caves, because I love the sound of it and the lyrics (which, again, is where the title comes from)!
> 
> This is a fair amount of time after the events of The Avengers.
> 
> Thanks to VerboseWordsmith for the prompts!

Tony has a piano in the New York mansion. A huge, antique piano that Clint stares at every single time he walks by it. It's an old grand piano that Tony tells him was always there and always played by his mother. It's kept clean and when he plinks out a light three note melody, it sounds in tune. He never hears it played and he thinks that's a damned crying shame.

He spends six months looking at the instrument longingly before Natasha sighs harshly.

"Do you need me to teach you?" she asks and she doesn't know that he thinks of Phil always offering. Of Phil's hands gliding over black and white keys of the keyboard that was kept in the back of the closet. Clint recognizes the dull ache that he associates with remembering Phil and the quiet, rainy Sundays they spent together.

"You mind?" he asks, shoving his hands in his pockets as she rolls her eyes, fond and rough all at once as she tugs on his hand.

She drags him through four different music stores for two different books on pianos before they go back to the mansion. She sits down at the piano with him and it's then that he can feel the tension in her body. 

"Phil always said he'd teach me. If I, y'know, wanted," he says finally as she knocks her elbow into his. 

"Do you want to learn?" she responds.

"Yeah. I think I do," he says, smiling as she nods. 

The process is long-going. Painstaking and requiring just as much practice as archery has ever took. He loses himself in it and finds just as much in return. Sometimes Tony wanders in, curious about the sounds and he offers up small tips, showing him tricks to the piano.

Clint spends his spare time thinking about the keys and about placement. He thinks about the proper pressure to push down onto the pedals. He smiles to himself while practicing, thinking of Phil's wry comments over a wrong note.

Steve asks him about it whenever they spar and even Thor seems curious about what he's doing. It sometimes seems like the whole house is waiting with a held breath at what Clint will end up learning.

It takes weeks. Almost months but before he can stop to think about it, Natasha's at his back as he carefully works his way through one of the smaller pieces. He can feel her hands on his shoulders, gentle but firm as he plays slowly, picking the tempo up as he continues.  
The music fills the room and his ears.

He swallows hard, closing his eyes as he goes through the motions. He messes up a few times, but by the end of it, he's sitting there feeling calm. Feeling the pleased hum of accomplishment and feeling as though he's made someone other than himself happy.

"Not bad, Barton," he hears from behind him. He tilts his head back, resting the top of his head against Natasha's stomach before she leans down, hugging him from behind.

"It's a start," she murmurs as he laughs roughly. 

It is, he thinks, a fine start.


End file.
